All Activity

Trader Joe's has reasonable prices on most nuts and dried fruits and lots of people love their 'pound plus' chocolate bars. Discount stores, obviously - I like Grocery Outlet. And, depending on the exchange rate and shipping, Canada! (last time I was looking for cocoa butter, the best price I found was from Vanilla Food Co in Canada)

It's Ebay so you can't call them, but I messaged them through the website explaining the issue. The seller has excellent reviews so I imagine that they'll settle it fairly but they're away until 7/30 so I'll wait to hear back from them. @rotuts Worst comes to worst, they have a 30 day return policy, but that means that I need to pay for shipping back to them - to CA from NY so not inexpensive but at least I'll get most of my money back. I'm hoping that they will send a call tag to return at their expense and provide a full refund (including the shipping cost to me) since I'm returning it because it was defective, not because I don't like it or want it.

How sad. Did you try calling them to ask about the problem you are having?

@KennethT how unfortunate . I hope you can get your money back .

Yes, I definitely tried different outlets and have reset the GFCI. But, my GFCI outlet has an LED that shows status and it's green. Plus, I plugged something else in at the same outlet at the same time (duplex outlet) and it's working fine. We've tried that too. It used to help, but not anymore. It seems like it works for a few minutes - usually around 5-7 minutes and then the screeching starts. I think that once it gets warm, the dimensions change a bit and the bearing freezes up - many sleeve bearings act that way - they're less expensive than ball bearings, but that's what it sounds like - a frozen bearing - it might not be too difficult to fix but I can't get in there to get to it. Also, some bearings are press-fit onto the shaft and I don't know if I can make a jig to press it (I have a hydraulic press at work but it's big and without a proper jig, it would do more damage than good!).

NOOOOOOO!!!!! I'm so sorry!!!!! Very very stupid question and I'm sure it's not the case but your reset button on the outlet doesn't need to be reset does it? I assume you tried that or a different plug in. And, I'll add, that when mine does that screeching sound I have banged the hell out of the top of it and then restarted --sometimes that helped. Sometimes it didn't but I got out some aggression.

Yes but the problem will remain, as time pass, it will get more thick. I tried the method I wrote above, but didn't quite work, although not a complete failure. Next time I will not add carrageenan, just the methylcellulose.

Nope, never found a solution involving other ingredients but altering the liquid - cheese ratio helps, so maybe it's just a matter of figuring out the right ratio for the cheese being used.

@ElsieD As you mentioned Pinsa, I was recently given a 400gr package of Ruggeri Pinsa dough, the instructions mentioned dried sourdough https://www.ruggerishop.it/products/farina-per-pinsa-romana . So, I think it can be used as a single use leavening agent? Now the instructions on the package and the website did vary significantly in hydration ( 80% on the website and 70% on the package).

Exciting! Glad it helped. As to where I found it: This should take you to the item on amazon.com, it’s from the Naturegrail Store. I’m not sure there’s much “real” information about the starter, it reads like marketing hoo hah, but maybe you’ll find what you’re looking for. If you need more help finding it let me know.

Danggit, you've made me amend my grocery order for the fourth time.

Lasagna with salad. I never used to put cheese through the layers but after reading US style recipes, I decided to do this. Nothing fancy, just a few spoonfuls of ricotta sprinkled over the meat layer. Cheesy bechamel sauce on top. Was pretty good.

@DesertTinker Can you please give me the source of this quote? I'd like to see what else they may have to say about this starter. It's going like gangbusters, by the way. I'm calling it Big Bertha. Why that popped into my head I have no idea, but Big Bertha it is, BB for short. I just fed it and I'm watching it to see how quickly it doubles. Can't wait to make Pinsa!

Arrrggghhhh.. I'm dying here. This morning, the old oven made that screeching noise over and over no matter how many times it was restarted. The one quoted above finally arrived today after a week in transit, so I got the old one out of the way, unboxed this one - one thing weird - the external box shows 2 buttons (no steam clean) but the inside box shows the 3 button version (with steam clean) but still the p/n is 300N, not 300N1. Anyway, I removed the oven (looks unused, but I noticed that one of the small screws in the back is missing - and it is the 3 button version but says 300N stamped in the metal on the back), removed the rack/baking tray to be cleaned, filled the water tank and plugged it in... and nothing. No LCD screen, no buttons - nothing works. I tried unplugging/replugging a few times but nothing. I emailed the seller and am waiting for the response... meanwhile, I'm left with the screecher.

@Smithy Your postulation was a very fine post.

Stir-fried bay scallops with roasted chile paste, garlic, ginger, minced serranos, and fish sauce, finished with slivered serranos and mint. Didn't have enough lettuce for wraps so I made tacos. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I postulate that that's the range of "low boil" as opposed to "full boil" or "rolling boil". I admit that so far I haven't found anything to support that terminology. However, Shirley Corriher in Cookwise notes that grain starches thicken at "just below the boiling point of water; can be held at this temperature without damage" (p. 275, First Edition, 1997) whereas root starches thicken at lower temperatures. The exact temperature depends on the exact starch, of course. My point here is that "just below the boiling point" may be that ill-defined 7-degree range.

Ice cream and orgeat.

Perhaps that explains why my poaching chicken thighs disappeared ....

Wednesday afternoon we went over to the Lime Out floating taco bar for linner. It’s only reachable by boat. You could easily swim to it from shore, but they only serve people who arrive via boat because they have cocktails, and swimming plus cocktails is usually not a good idea. Years ago there was a boat like this at a different beach that only served drinks, no food, and you had to swim to it. They did have a few issues over there with over served people getting into trouble in the water. That boat was destroyed in the hurricanes and not rebuilt. Lime Out floating taco bar You sit on floating lily pads, and the servers come out in that floating platform to push your food and drinks to you. We went later in the afternoon so it was not busy. Earlier in the day it’s always jammed up here. A couple of the tacos we ordered. Korean tuna, and two rum pork rib Another Korean tuna, a grouper seveche, and a jerked tuna with pineapple radish salsa We ended the day with a swim at Maho beach. That guy with the cooler at the water line is collecting water samples for the National Park. They issue beach water quality reports regularly. Yesterday we headed out with no set plans around noon time. By some small miracle, there was a parking spot at Trunk Bay. We could not let the opportunity pass us by, so we ended up spending the day here. There were a lot of other people, but the end of the beach we like is never crowded. We called an audible and made a last minute reservation for dinner at Extra Virgin Bistro. It’s a three course prix fixe. I am still full today haha. Here’s the menu Drinks. I tried the coco loco mocktail (just ok). Sister had a limin’, husband had a martini, and nephew had a up in smoke First course. Sister and I had the ricotta Nephew was excited that he could have the calamari. I think the chef made him a double portion, because this was huge niece and husband chose the pork belly Second course. Nephew had the sausage gnocchi Niece had the spinach salad with goat cheese and popcorn snd the rest of us had the wild mushroom pappardelle i could have stopped here, but it was time for the third course. Three of us had the tuna niece chose the short rib and nephew had the filet and then niece and nephew wanted dessert! Niece had the apple crisp and nephew had the passionfruit bread puddong Today is our last full day, and I don’t know what we are doing for food, but probably not much after that huge meal!

It’s the Black Hole of Boiling. Nothing should be cooked there! 🙃

I think your cats are eating better than I am!! I've seen those on a buffet in Malaysia. All different sizes... They're even better when rehydrated and then fried!

And what is the missing 7-degrees between simmering and boiling called and what would you cook at those temps?

@blue_dolphin interesting article . thank you for sharing.

This article has a pretty good boil vs simmer discussion.